National League One officials will meet the Rugby Football Union chief executive Francis Baron this week to discuss Twickenham's proposal to end automatic relegation from the top flight with some clubs insisting that the Guinness Premiership members are already acting as a cartel.

This is the time of year when League One clubs have to fill in forms to see whether they can fulfil the Premiership's eligibility criteria. Some, either because they do not expect to finish near the top of the table or because they lack the resources to develop their facilities, do not bother.

"The forms get longer and longer and the criteria get tougher and tougher," the Exeter Chiefs deputy chief executive Keiron Northcott said. "While it is right that the comfort of spectators is made a priority, I think there is also an attempt to make it as difficult for the club which finishes top of the division to be promoted, but if anyone in the Premiership thinks that Exeter will not meet the criteria, they are in for a shock."

Last month, the RFU offered the prospect of an end to automatic promotion and relegation as a bargaining sop in an attempt to reach agreement with Premier Rugby over the management and control of elite players. It believed that enough clubs were concerned about the impact of being demoted from the Premiership that they would accept the offer, but it was thwarted when Harlequins, who returned to the top flight only in the summer, sided with Leicester, Sale, Gloucester, Wasps and Northampton in saying "no deal".

One Premier club official claimed that Quins were swayed by a declaration that if Leeds, relegated in May, did not win the First Division, no one else had a chance of going up. He said: "It was pointed out that, unlike Harlequins, Leeds had not been able to hold on to their best players and it would not be a one-horse race for the title. The view was that relegation this season was unlikely to happen and that we had no need to barter with the RFU."

Baron admitted earlier this month that automatic promotion and relegation was a negotiating tool, saying: "It has always been an article of faith on our side, but we are prepared to look at it again. We have got to make the breakthrough with Premier Rugby."

First Division Rugby's executive officer, Geoff Cooke, will meet Baron and the RFU's management board chairman Martyn Thomas on Friday. "We have a legally binding agreement that promotion and relegation will be in place until 2009," he said. "The Premiership clubs are acting as a cartel, wanting to run their businesses with no risk, but a number of clubs in the first division have spent considerable amounts of money on developing their facilities and squads and should not be denied their chance to join the elite.

"A problem with the eligibility criteria is that the audit takes place in January when clubs do not know if they are going to be promoted. Is it fair to expect them to commit themselves to spending what may not be necessary? We want to know exactly where the RFU stands on this and our view remains that the current system is healthy for the game."

Six points separate the top seven teams in the division. Plymouth Albion lost their position at the top over the weekend and their chairman Bob Evans maintained that the promotion issue was sacrosanct. "It is not about 12 clubs and the RFU's management board, but the whole of the union," he said. "The French game does not make a song and dance about relegation, neither does soccer's Premiership. We have improved our facilities and I am confident we would meet the Premiership criteria. Why should clubs who have come through the system themselves, like Northampton, deny us our chance?" Exeter have this season moved into a new £15m ground which holds 6,000 spectators with the potential to turn it into a 15,000 all-seater stadium.

"We are not reliant on a sugar daddy," Northcott said. "We serve a huge area of population and would be an asset to the Premiership. All the clubs are very concerned that a deal will be done with Premier Rugby over relegation, but we will not stop fighting for something which rewards ambition. They can make the criteria as tough as they like, but we will not go away and, anyway, will Bath meet the criteria next season?"